Wow! That's truly frightening, Moses. I thought this bandits/Boko Haram alliance was merely in the realm of conjecture. I am familiar with Bukarti, who is Kanuri himself and who was once--maybe twice even--threatened by Shekau. I think he is a PhD student at the Imperial College or the London School of Economics and Political Science. I will look for his interview.FarooqFarooq A. Kperogi, Ph.D.School of Communication & MediaSocial Science BuildingRoom 5092 MD 2207402 Bartow Avenue
Kennesaw State UniversityKennesaw, Georgia, USA 30144
Cell: (+1) 404-573-9697
Personal website: www.farooqkperogi.comTwitter: @farooqkperogiNigeria's Digital Diaspora: Citizen Media, Democracy, and Participation
"The nice thing about pessimism is that you are constantly being either proven right or pleasantly surprised." G. F. Will--On Sat, Dec 19, 2020 at 11:56 AM Moses Ebe Ochonu <meochonu@gmail.com> wrote:Farooq, Bulama Bukarti, a well respected authority on Boko Haram, believes that the merger--or alliance of convenience and mutual benefit--between the bandits and Boko Haram is real. He gave an interview to BBC Hausa two days ago in which he made a compelling point about why an alliance with Boko Haram would make sense for the bandits and why Boko Haram offers them something that they lack:1. According to Bukarti, Boko Haram is able to say to the bandits, "look, everyone sees you as evil because you steal, you kill, you maim, and you destroy, and right now you're just a common criminal in their eyes, destined for hellfire. That is the public perception of you. But if you rebrand under our banner and subscribe to our ideals and ideological aspirations, you can continue to do what you are doing. You don't have to give up your weapons or modes of operation and not only would what you are doing cease to be evil, it would become a noble jihad for which you would obtain favor and rewards from Allah. Not only that, once you commit to jihad under our banner, the stealing you do will no longer be stealing but would become rightful, legitimate appropriation of the goods of infidels and apostates (ghanimah--war booty)."2. According to Bukarti, BH can also say to the bandits: You are already disconnected from secular/Western education and the secular economy and are basically in self-seclusion (tsangaya), the only difference being the absence of religious content or underpinning for your rejection of secular Nigerian society for a life of bush seclusion. That is the life we have chosen for ourselves, so we have a lot in common and share a disdain for the secular accoutrements of Nigerian society. Going into alliance with us not only helps you gain legitimacy but it also gives religious coherence to what you have chosen to do, which is to separate yourself from a sinful, oppressive secular Nigerian society.--On Sat, Dec 19, 2020 at 10:36 AM Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju <toyin.adepoju@gmail.com> wrote:Where are those well informed people to help us understand why Buhari and Miyetti Allah and Fulani innocents are being witch-hunted, unfairly castigated?Everyone else is having a field day in the absence of these people.It's not fair.--On Sat, Dec 19, 2020, 17:23 Femi Segun <soloruntoba@gmail.com> wrote:Correction' Miyetti Allah has admitted that its members are responsible for the mounting insecurity in the country and has even assisted with negotiations for the release of the abducted schoolboys, why is the group not treated, at the very least, like a "group of interest" by security forces?' FK.The simple answer is: Ethnoreligious solidarity . Buhari was quoted on Liberty Radio in July 2014 that an attack against Boko Haram was an attack against the North. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vq0MFpRmrYUHis refusal to change the incompetent service chiefs, his raproachment with the Boko Haram terrorists through the funny reintegration programme and settlement, of the terrorists with millions of dollars when negotiating the release of kdnappened school children, , his attempt to whitewash Abacha as a saint, despite all evidence to the contrary, the defense of past military regimes, the massive ongoing corruption under his watch (eg Ganduge dollars and Malami unresolved issuies), and his nepotistic appointments are all indications of his ethnic irredentism and religious bias. These attributes will haunt the country until he exits the political space in 2023, hopefully.Femi--On Sat, Dec 19, 2020 at 10:50 AM Femi Segun <soloruntoba@gmail.com> wrote:' Miyetti Allah has admitted that its members are responsible for the mounting insecurity in the country and has even assisted with negotiations for the release of the abducted schoolboys, why is the group not treated, at the very least, like a "group of interest" by security forces?' FK.The simple answer is: Ethnoreligious solidarity . Buhari was quoted on Liberty Radio in July 2014 that an attack against Boko Haram was an attack against the North. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gAr77wWNms. His refusal to change the incompetent service chiefs, his raproachment with the Boko Haram terrorists through the funny reintegration programme and settlement, of the terrorists with millions of dollars when negotiating the release of kdnappened school children, , his attempt to whitewash Abacha as a saint, despite all evidence to the contrary, the defense of past military regimes, the massive ongoing corruption under his watch (eg Ganduge dollars and Malami unresolved issuies), and his nepotistic appointments are all indications of his ethnic irredentism and religious bias. These attributes will haunt the country until he exits the political space in 2023, hopefully.FemiOn Sat, Dec 19, 2020 at 6:18 AM Toyin Falola <toyinfalola@austin.utexas.edu> wrote:--Farooq:
We have not seen the end of this. Whether they are bandits or Boko Haram or MA, they will strike again:
- If they were paid, they see a profitable economy.
- If they were not paid, they see an efficient negotiation trick in attention and visibility.
- If they were paid and communicated with, they see themselves as efficient operators
Expect more.
TF
From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Date: Saturday, December 19, 2020 at 5:11 AM
To: USAAfrica Dialogue <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Six Queries on the Kidnap and Release of the Kankara SchoolboysSaturday, December 19, 2020
Six Queries on the Kidnap and Release of the Kankara Schoolboys
By Farooq A. Kperogi, Ph.D.
Twitter: @farooqkperogi
When it emerged on Thursday that the hundreds of schoolboys that were abducted from Government Science Secondary School, Kankara, were released, I was so relieved that I gave the Buhari regime an unusual pat in the back in my social media updates.
"The release of the #KankaraBoys—I don't care at what cost—is one of the few bright spots of the Buhari regime," I wrote. "It shows at least that the regime has learned from GEJ's lethargy and callousness when the Chibok kidnap happened. Instead of rescuing the girls, Jonathan and his officials quibbled over whether the kidnap actually took place—and helped fertilize unhealthy and unhelpful conspiracy theories. Some of the girls are still missing."
But after my euphoria, I've been grappling with several troubling questions. I will highlight just six here:
1. Who really kidnapped the boys? Was it Boko Haram or so-called Fulani bandits? The initial suspicion was that they were kidnapped by the ever-present, nihilistic, and mercenary "bandits" who have been tormenting the northwest in the last few years—and who don't seem to be animated by any overt religious ideology.
But Boko Haram, whose operations had been mostly limited to the northeast in the last five years, claimed responsibility for the kidnap. As Boko Haram experts have pointed out, it is rare for the group to claim responsibility for acts it didn't commit. In fact, Boko Haram actually takes umbrage at being falsely associated with acts it didn't commit.
The fact that the schoolkids appeared in a video pleading with the government to not deploy the military to find them and to discourage western education redounded to the evidence that they were in Boko Haram's captivity, although some of the boys later told newsmen that "bandits" had told them to lie on camera that they were in Boko Haram's captivity in order to aggrandize the abduction.
Or have "Fulani bandits" and "Kanuri Boko Haramists" merged? If so, that would be at once frighteningly ominous and socio-historically curious. It's ominous because it would mean that the northwest and the northeast—and perhaps even parts of the northcentral—would be overwhelmed by unexampled terrorism in the coming months and years.
It would be socio-historically curious because the Kanuri and the Fulani are not only completely different people, they are—or used to be— "historical enemies." Kanuris resisted Usman Dan Fodio's 19th-century Jihad because they said there was nothing about their Islam, which they'd embraced since at least the 9th century before even the Fulani, that needed Dan Fodio's "reform."
The tensile stress that the Kanem-Borno Empire's repudiation of Dan Fodio's jihad actuated has been somewhat resolved through a ritualized joking relationship between the Kanuri and the Fulani who now call each other "slaves" in lighthearted jest.
But although Muslim northern Nigeria is emerging as an ethnogenesis, i.e., a new ethnic identity forged from a mishmash of multiple identities, Kanuri people still take pride in having a political identity that is independent of the Fulani-inflected caliphate. A fusion of "bandits" and Boko Haram would unleash a game-changing terroristic blitz on Nigeria.
2. How many students were kidnapped? News stories about the release of the boys quoted Governor Bello Masari as saying that 344 boys had been released. But earlier reports had said the abducted students numbered a little over 500. One of the students who escaped from his captors also said more than 500 of them had been captured. He even said some of them had been murdered by their captors. So what's the truth?
3. Who rescued the boys? The Katsina State government said their rescue was facilitated by Miyetti Allah. But the Nigerian military on Friday contradicted the Katsina State government and insisted that the Defence Headquarters' "Operation Hadarin Daji" was singularly responsible for the release of the boys. Since both claims can't be simultaneously true, one is a lie.
But note that Miyetti Allah appears have officially accepted that its members are responsible for the progressive deterioration of security in the country, according to the Vanguard of December 15, which quoted the group's president, Muhammadu Kirowa, as saying, "We cannot continue to wallow in denial when it is a fact that majority of criminals arrested across the country are from within us, our kith and kin [who] have gone into this circle because of our sheer negligence."
If the abductors are "Fulani bandits," it would make sense that Miyetti Allah would be more helpful in facilitating the release of the boys than the military, which is notorious for being harder on peaceful protesters than on terrorists.
4. Was ransom paid before the boys were released? The Katsina State government said no ransom was paid. It said it used moral suasion to persuade the kidnappers to release the boys. But in a rare moment of clarity on NTA on December 18, Muhammadu Buhari talked of the "settlement of the abductors."
We all know that "settlement" means under-the-table payment in Nigerian English. I have read online rumor mills that said the abductors were "settled" with up to $4 million. While the figure may not be accurate, the government has a history of giving enormous financial war chests to terrorists.
On May 6, 2017, for instance, the Wall Street Journal reported that the Buhari regime delivered "a black duffel bag containing €2 million in plastic-wrapped cash" to Boko Haram for the release of 82 of the Chibok girls that were abducted in 2014.
Since ransom payment is a counterproductive and unsustainable security strategy, what is the government doing to ensure that this doesn't happen again?
5. If the government can identify, negotiate with, and pay abductors, why can't it apprehend them? If Miyetti Allah has admitted that its members are responsible for the mounting insecurity in the country and has even assisted with negotiations for the release of the abducted schoolboys, why is the group not treated, at the very least, like a "group of interest" by security forces?
Why are #EndSARS protesters, supporters, organizers, and financiers the victims of murder, bank account freezes, and continual harassment by the government while terrorists, abductors, and a self-identified association that facilitates the work of abductors featherbedded?
6. Finally, in the Kankara abduction saga, agents of government emerged as the most vicious purveyors of transparently fake news. Garba Shehu, Buhari's spokesman, said on December 15 that "contrary to all the fake rumors [so even rumors can be "fake"?] flying around, only 10 students were kidnapped from the school in Kankara."
Abike Dabiri also prematurely said on her verified Twitter handle that the kidnapped boys had been released. When she was called out, she lied that her Twitter and Instagram handles had been hacked, implying that it was a hacker who posted the false update.
But anyone who is malicious enough to hack anyone's social media account won't post from the same device and location as the original account owner and would post something more vicious than sterile government propaganda.
Since the regime, particularly its chief lying officer Lai Mohammed, is obsessed with stamping out "fake news," what is the punishment for its agents that shared literal fake news, although Garba Shehu has apologized for his?
The absence of unambiguous answers to these queries is the biggest driver of conspiracy theories about the abduction. People who disagreed with my initial social media update claimed that the abduction was contrived to lend unearned veneer of competence to the Buhari regime.
This is, of course, silly conspiratorial reasoning. Had the regime been unable to rescue the boys, Buhari would have been justifiably excoriated for incompetence and insensitivity, which are his trademarks. In fact, he was accused precisely of that in the six days that the boys were in captivity. But having rescued them, the regime is now being accused of staging the kidnap.
Praiseworthy as the saving of the boys from captivity is—from the perspective of a parent—the fact that questions and mutually contradictory claims from the same government linger on after their rescue is more evidence of incompetence than a conspiracy.
Farooq A. Kperogi, Ph.D.
School of Communication & Media
Social Science Building
Room 5092 MD 2207
402 Bartow Avenue
Kennesaw State UniversityKennesaw, Georgia, USA 30144
Cell: (+1) 404-573-9697
Personal website: www.farooqkperogi.comTwitter: @farooqkperogi
Nigeria's Digital Diaspora: Citizen Media, Democracy, and Participation
"The nice thing about pessimism is that you are constantly being either proven right or pleasantly surprised." G. F. Will--
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